Written by IESB Staff Friday, 22 October 2010 23:30 PDF Print E-mail
Don’t start packing up your lawn chairs and igloo coolers just yet, but there will once again be “camping out” for a Star Wars movie. IESB has learned some news about the future of the Star Wars franchise.

First, let me remind our readers of IESB’s past scoops so anyone doubting the news will be aware. From Joss Whedon directing the Avengers, to the recent announcement of Disney’s planned renegotiation of the Paramount Marvel deal, to the countless casting scoops, directing scoops, to our solid sources at Lucasfilm.

Confirmed IESB scoops specific to the Star Wars universe include the first announcement of the PG-13 rating of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the first word of a live action Star Wars TV series as well as the Clone Wars animated series. Yes, all of these Lucasfilm scoops were all first reported here on IESB.

Now on to our newest big Lucasfilm scoop, ready? George Lucas is plotting to create new Star Wars movies at the ultra top-secret Skywalker Ranch.

This is déjà vu of the mid 90’s when Uncle George starting tweaking the Holy Trilogy to gear up for the Special Editions. That was his first step in moving forward with the eventual prequel trilogy.

It’s happening all over again, Lucasfilm is already hard at work converting the entire Star Wars saga into 3D which will be released starting with Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 2012. The word from our ultra top-secret Lucasfilm insider is that Lucas has gotten the itch and is already looking ahead into launching an entirely new trilogy in that galaxy far, far away.

What do we know? First of all, these new film will have nothing to do with the live action television series currently in development. That show already has over 50 scripts ready to go and plenty of pre-production time and money has been spent on artwork and storyboards. Once that show goes into production, Lucasfilm hopes to be able to produce at least 100 episodes since that is the threshold for syndication in the United States.

IESB has been told fans can expect the new trilogy after the entire saga is released in 3D which is expected to be complete around 2015 or 2016.

Uncle George’s modus operandi has not changed, the plan is that he will self finance the new trilogy after he rakes in an expected $500 – $750 million dollars with the re-release of the entire Star Wars Saga in 3D and on Blu-Ray.

The ideal plan, according to our spy at Skywalker Ranch, is to be able to release a new Star Wars film within 24 months after the release of the last re-re-release (is that right?) of Return of the Jedi 3D.

Too early for story details but one thing that our source is certain about, they will not be prequels but instead sequels. It’s not for certain if they will be the long awaited Episodes 7, 8 and 9 but could instead be Episodes 10, 11 and 12 or possibly even further out in the Star Wars timeline. And by giving space in the timeline, possibly even as far as 100 years or 1,000 years in the Star Wars universe future, Lucas avoids having to make these stories “fit in” with what the previous stories have told.

According to our sources, the most likely scenario for the films is that they will exist in the same universe but will not have anything to do with the Skywalker Clan. That story has been told, that starship has sailed.

What has caused this sudden change of heart for Uncle George? Well, besides the obvious possible billions that a new Star Wars trilogy will take in, our source tells us that George has gotten motivated with the success the Clone Wars animated series, the video games and also with the success of Avatar.

Can we expect Lucasfilm to confirm our story? Have they ever? Nope, I am sure that they will spin this or completly deny the story, but we will stand 100% behind our source.

Both the IESB website and the official Star Wars forums were experiencing technical problems Saturday afternoon, possibly due to overwhelming interest in the rumor.

Wired.com’s original mention of IESB’s report follows:

Quoting an “ultra top-secret Lucasfilm insider,” IESB reports that George Lucas is planning to roll out a new Star Wars trilogy after the six original films have been converted into 3-D.

“George Lucas is plotting to create new Star Wars movies at the ultra top-secret Skywalker Ranch,” the entertainment news site says. “This is deja vu of the mid ’90s when Uncle George [started] tweaking the Holy Trilogy to gear up for the Special Editions.”

IESB’s anonymous source says the films probably would be set in the Star Wars universe but would not focus on the Skywalker family.

“Too early for story details but one thing that our source is certain about, they will not be prequels but instead sequels,” IESB says. “It’s not for certain if they will be the long-awaited Episodes 7, 8 and 9 but could instead be Episodes 10, 11 and 12 or possibly even further out in the Star Wars timeline. And by giving space in the timeline, possibly even as far as 100 years or 1,000 years in the Star Wars universe future, Lucas avoids having to make these stories ‘fit in’ with what the previous stories have told.”

The unconfirmed report says the new trilogy, which ideally would hit theaters within two years of the 3-D re-release of the first six Star Wars movies, would have nothing to do with the live-action Star Wars television show that’s in development.

Wired.com has contacted Lucasfilm in an attempt to confirm or deny IESB’s report, but it’s the weekend — and Lucasfilm is secretive, for obvious reasons — so don’t hold your breath. In the meantime, read IESB’s story for all the murky details: “The Line Starts Here … Again! New Star Wars Movies Planned”

While a Sarlacc may take over a thousand years to fully digest its prey, the pop-culture news cycle has proven once again to be the complete opposite — devouring and spitting out a new rumor about the “Star Wars” series in less than 24 hours this week. But what makes fans think there would be a new trilogy in the first place? And where should the most successful movie franchise of all time go from here?

The hijinks began Wednesday evening (October 21), when 3-D-movie-focused blog MarketSaw reported that it had an internal source who’d infiltrated the trusted circle of George Lucas like Princess Leia in a Boushh costume. According to the “absolutely connected” source, Lucas is making secret plans to create a new trilogy of films that will be shot in stereoscopic 3-D — and could be directed by such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. A mere four hours later, Ain’t It Cool News had a Lucasfilm rep insisting “We do not have any Star Wars theatrical movies planned,” and the ridicule began.

But is the notion of three more “Star Wars” films as absurd as it may seem? Those with Yoda-like memories might say no.

In 1978, a Lucas profile by Time magazine reported that the director planned to make “Star Wars II, and then, count them, 10 other planned sequels.” A 1983 article said that Lucas was making plans to revisit Luke Skywalker “some place in his 60s,” and that Mark Hamill and the original series stars would “get first crack at the roles — if they look old enough.” As recently as 1999, as Lucas’ prequels began hitting theaters, the original trilogy was still being described as the middle films in a nine-part epic.

Unfortunately for fans, Lucas has changed his tune over the years. Vague plans became an insistence that the series would only be six films, with Lucas telling the BBC: “I never had a story for the sequels, for the later ones. … And also, I’ll be to a point in my age where to do another trilogy would take 10 years.” As recently as last year, Lucas told The Los Angeles Times: “There really isn’t any story to tell there. … It’s been covered in the books and video games and comic books, which are things I think are incredibly creative but that I don’t really have anything to do with, other than being the person who built the sandbox they’re playing in.”

In that aforementioned media, many plot points abound: Han and Leia marry and have three children; Boba Fett survives his fall into the Sarlacc pit; Luke rebuilds the Jedi Order and has a son named Ben. None of it, however, is likely to ever be as long as Lucas has a say in the matter.

“I get asked all the time, ‘What happens after “Return of the Jedi”?,’ and there really is no answer for that,” he continued. “The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that’s where that story ends.”

Now that he’s 65 years old (and Spielberg is 63 and Coppola is 70), it seems highly unlikely that the idea of handing over a decade to “Star Wars” sequels is attractive — even if it would be done with the 3-D technology high-profile directors are embracing. Instead, Lucas’ not-so-evil empire is focused on exploring the time between trilogies with the successful “Clone Wars” series currently running on Cartoon Network, last year’s CG-animated “Clone Wars” theatrical film and a mysterious upcoming live-action television series set in what Obi-Wan Kenobi once called “The Dark Times.”

Although Harrison Ford showed with his recent “Indiana Jones” sequel that he isn’t above revisiting a classic character, the man once known as Han Solo is now 67; Hamill is 58 and Carrie Fisher is 54. Lucas’ onetime vision of a third trilogy would need to be enacted soon — and to fans who want to see Luke, Leia and Han together again, this week’s MarketSaw article is like a tiny hologram projected by R2-D2, professing itself as their only hope.
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1624504/story.jhtml

Star Wars Live Action series

George Lucas to shoot Star Wars TV series at Sydney’s Fox Studios
Link: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap…006014,00.htmlSYDNEY remains filmmaker George Lucas’ favoured location to shoot his much-hyped Star Wars spin-off TV series.The sci-fi TV series will likely be filmed at Sydney’s FOX Studios. “We’re looking to shoot it in Australia,” Lucas told a press conference at his Big Rock ranch, the site for his new animation studio, north of San Francisco. If given the green light, the live action Star Wars offshoot will be one of the most expensive TV productions made in Australia and create hundreds of acting and crew jobs for the local industry. There was speculation the as yet untitled series would begin shooting next year, but it may be pushed back to 2010. Lucas has employed two Australian scriptwriters to pen the series and continues to work on “getting all of the technology worked out” to make the show. The 63-year-old director, writer and producer, who revolutionised cinema with 1977’s Star Wars, is no stranger to Sydney. He made 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith at Fox Studios. “It is going ahead,” Lucas confirmed. “We’re in the process of writing screenplays right now. “It’s going to take a while because it’s really hard to do.” The series will not follow the regular Star Wars storylines, instead focusing on the “lower levels of life” of Lucas’ Star Wars world. “It has nothing to do with the Skywalker saga,” Lucas said. “None of the Skywalkers or anything. “This is what I call a little footnote to the Skywalker saga. “… It is about the lower levels of life, the lower depths. “They hear about the fact it is no longer a republic and now it’s an empire, but they are from a world where none of that really means too much to them.” Lucas’ Australian fans will not have to wait for the TV series for a new Star Wars adventure. The filmmaker is set to release his first animated feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

OK most of the this is the same but it is nice to see some news on this.
I think a lot is riding on the Clone Wars TV show for this.

How does it dovetail with the live-action TV series that you’ve announced?
Lucas – I’m just starting to work on the scripts now for the live-action TV series. We finished the first year of Clone Wars, [and] we’re in the middle of working on the second year. I’m finishing the scripts for the third year. And now I’m working on the scripts for the first year of the live-action show. [Smiles] So it’s a lot of scripts.

Where is the live-action one going to fit into the overall Star Wars narrative?
It’s completely separate. This one has all of the characters that everybody knows — everybody from Yoda to Anakin to Mace Windu to Obi-Wan — everybody’s there. The live-action has nobody there, because it’s after Episode III, so everybody’s dead, basically, or hiding somewhere. You hear about the Emperor, just like you do in Episode IV, but it’s mostly about a whole different world. I mean, there are a million stories in the big city — you’ve only seen one of them. [Laughs]

Yeah, but I guess there is stuff that you could imagine coming in between parts III and IV — for example, we never saw a young Han Solo.
No, well, this has nothing to do with those series. Some of the characters from the features find their way in there, so it’s not completely divorced. It’s as if we just went down the street and told a different story. You know, we were doing, I don’t know, 24, and now we’re going to move down the street here and do The Wire. Same thing, it’s just different people doing the same thing in the same city.

With the same Emperor.
Yeah.

And the same rules.
Yeah, all the same rules, all the same places, all the same stuff, and a lot of the same species. So it’s a familiar world, it’s just that you’re seeing a completely different side of it.

Do you have a network yet?
Not yet.

Are you still hoping for 100 episodes?
Yeah, I’m going to 100 episodes no matter what.

Cast?
No, we haven’t gotten there yet.

Have you built any sets or done any mockups?
No, what we do in our TV series is we write the entire first year and finish it as a script. Then we start getting ready to shoot it, then we start casting, and then we do it. We know where the whole first year is before we even start to work on it. I mean, I can do that because I’m financing the whole thing. So I’ve got it pegged out for 100 episodes, and I know exactly what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it and what the risks are.

How long will the episodes be?
They’re an hour. It’s a regular live-action TV series — you know, Law & Order. [Laughs and waits a beat] I hope.

So we’re talking a couple of years?
Yeah, it should take another couple years. The live-action TV series probably won’t go on until around 2010. It’ll take this year just to get through all the scripts and then another year to get them all shot.

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Originally Posted by JediBendu

some more rumours:
The live-action show is going to end up on whatever network pays the most. However, I’ve heard they’re talking about the show being on HBO or even Showtime. Which jives with the slugline for the show…think Deadwood meets The Sopranos. Want a bit more? Could the live action show feature Gangsters? Could it follow the underworld of the Star Wars universe? Perhaps even a crime family? Have I said too much? Again, think Deadwood meets The Sopranos.

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